Research: Digital advertising must evolve

The rapid growth of the online video sector continued in 2012, with more campaigns undertaken and clients seeing the medium offer real value. However, Adap.tv, the company that delivers a programmatic way to trade video advertising, believes the industry must continue to push for further significant changes in 2013.

Research carried out by Adap.tv indicates that there are three areas that need to be addressed in 2013 before companies begin to move their brand budget online. These reflect that ‘watching TV’ is being re-defined as more media is consumed on mobile phones, tablets and smart TVs, but brand budgets are still firmly rooted in traditional TV:
– Measurement: the way in which TV and online media is bought is currently very different, so online measurement needs to become more like traditional TV’s gross rating points.
– Quality: advertisers and agencies will need assurance that the ads for their brands appear in the right environment and on websites that match the advertiser’s brand values.
– Price: The cost of buying TV advertising is traditionally lower than that for online. This issue needs to be balanced through significantly larger budgets being made available for quality publishers.

As the online video advertising sector moves to achieve these changes, Adap.tv predicts the following for 2013:
1 Viewable ads will become one of the key metrics
2 The rise of smart TVs will see real interactive commercials appear
3 TV and digital planning will become more standard
4 Digital ads will begin to prove as effective as traditional TV ads
5 There will be a greater collaboration between broadcast and digital teams
6 The number of mobile video campaigns will increase as people watch more TV on their smartphones
7 Verified viewability will become standard
8 The number of YouTube and customised web-based channels will increase
9 Brands will start to move more TV budget online to check it’s effectiveness
10 There will be a rise in automated trading of online video

“This year we have seen a critical blurring of the lines between television and digital as the combination of catch up TV and new handheld devices continue to transform the way in which consumers watch television,” explains Brian Fitzpatrick, managing director of Adap.tv Europe. “The predictions for 2013 reflect these changes, and outline ways that the industry can tackle the challenges of the rapidly changing environment in which they operate.”